


Hedging Your Bets

by elleavantemm



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Established Relationship, First Time, Get Together, Humor, M/M, Preventers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-13
Updated: 2012-01-13
Packaged: 2017-10-29 10:36:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/318981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elleavantemm/pseuds/elleavantemm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christmas parties have a tendency of going one of two ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hedging Your Bets

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the prompt "office parties" for the winter round of the livejournal Advent Challenge.

Office parties have a tendency to go one of two ways: they’re either generally fun for everyone with good food and good conversation; or they’re awful. Because the same people every year have a little _too much fun_ , and act in such a way that everyone else around them is intensely uncomfortable afterwards. Unfortunately the split between the two groups is never fifty-fifty; more often than not it’s closer to thirty-seventy. This year’s Preventer Christmas party just so happened to be one of the latter.

It had started as a decent party. The spread was always good at Preventer Christmas parties so it never took long for people to start relaxing and unwinding from an intense workload, and enjoying the end of the year festivities. There was murmured conversation and mixed laughter when, within the first hour, a surprised female voice loudly said, “Oh! Uh... I-- Sorry!” before rushing back into the auditorium with cheeks burning in embarrassment.

“Should we bet?” Duo snarked to Heero who smirked around the rim of his glass.

“It seems like it would be in bad taste.”

Duo snorted. “Please. I bet it’s Noin and Zechs.”

“Trowa and Quatre,” Heero returned without hesitation.

“Ya think? Those two are so good about keeping things professional.”

Heero raised an eyebrow at Duo which seemed to convey that the other man had evidence to the contrary. “How much? Twenty?”

“ _Twenty_? Feeling confident, are you?”

Heero smiled enigmatically. They shook hands to make the bet official. A few moments later a blushing Quatre, hair in complete disarray, shirt untucked, and a dark red mark blossoming on his collarbone - visible even from a distance - slipped back into the room, followed by a seemingly self-satisfied Trowa. Everyone pretended not to notice, but within seconds the conversation had switched from quietly murmured to hushed whispers which were far louder than was strictly necessary.

“Pay up,” Heero said triumphantly.

Duo frowned deeply as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket, removing a twenty and slapping it into Heero’s hand. “You knew they were in there, didn’t you?”

“You bet,” Heero said, and it didn’t slip past Duo that his friend’s comment had a double meaning.

Wufei wandered over with Sally Po. “So...”

“I swear this happens every year. They are so good about keeping their work relationship professional during the rest of the year - I mean, probably half the people that work here don’t even know they’re a couple until...well, _this happens_.” Duo commented wryly.

Sally Po and Heero shared a significant look.

“I’m sorry,” Duo said, catching the exchange. “Am I missing something here?”

Sally shrugged her shoulders and looked down at the plate she had in hand, picking at a few of the pastries that were on it. Heero coughed awkwardly and pointed at another agent across the room and made a poor excuse before making a hasty exit. Wufei shrugged his shoulders. “Sally.” Duo said seriously.

“I’d rather not talk about it.”

“But you know something!”

“I know plenty of things.”

Duo huffed in annoyance. “Yes, so I am aware. But you know things _about Trowa and Quatre_.”

A heavy crash across the room indicated that someone else had recently passed their own level of tolerance; just what this party needed to get better. The crash was immediately followed by uproarious giggling - male giggling. “Sweet mercy,” Duo muttered and left his friends to get another drink from the bar table; something considerably stronger than what he had been drinking. On his way he passed Trowa and Quatre who were occupying a back corner of the room, close together, but not touching. Obviously their discovery had put a damper on the activities.

“Having fun, guys?” Duo asked offhandedly.

Quatre flushed again and Trowa smiled wryly. “About as much fun as you can have at these work parties.”

Duo wanted to rag on them for their sexual indiscretion, but decided that he wasn’t really in the mood for schaudenfreude. He nodded his head at the two men and continued on to the bar table at the back of the room. An agent named Carter was working the table and smiled wide as Duo approached.

“What can I get for you, Agent Maxwell?”

“Something strong, please. Two fingers over ice.”

Carter poured some whiskey into a glass and handed it to Duo. “Are you enjoying the party?”

Duo took a sip of his drink; much better. “As much as you can at these work parties,” Duo replied, mimicking Trowa’s response to the same question. “You aren’t stuck behind the bar all night, are you?”

Carter shrugged. “I’m only supposed to be here for a couple of hours before someone relieves me. Sure would be nice if I could sneak out now so we could share a drink.”

Oh, lord. Carter was hitting on Duo and there was no decent way to escape from the situation without being rude or straight up lying. Then a brilliant idea occurred to him. “Hey, why don’t I go find someone to take over for a little while?”

Carter brightened. “That would be great.”

Duo slipped away, making a face as soon as his back was turned. He returned to Wufei and Sally who were talking heatedly, staying firmly out of sight of the bar table for the remainder of the evening. If Carter remembered the brush off later, Duo hoped that he didn’t hold it against him. “Where’s Heero?” Duo asked, interrupting the conversation.

Sally stopped mid-sentence and gave Duo a disapproving glare. “Ooo-kay... I’ll just go see if I can find him.”

The auditorium seemed like it was full of more people than reasonable, and Duo had to force himself through the crush of bodies left, right, and center. He bumped into Heero by accident as he squeezed passed a group of young recruits. “Duo,” Heero noted, wrapping an arm around his friend’s waist and pulling him tight against him.

“Uh... Hi,” Duo replied.

“Marybeth, you know Duo, don’t you?” Marybeth was a young office clerk for the Preventers, long red hair spiraling down around her shoulders. She smiled shyly at the introduction, waving her fingers rather than greeting him verbally. Her eyes fell to where Heero’s fingers flexed against Duo’s hip possessively. Duo blinked, but didn’t move. This night continued to get stranger and stranger.

“I was just telling Marybeth about the last mission we went on.”

Duo nodded as though he knew what mission Heero was referring to. The truth was that they hadn’t been on a mission together in months, so either he was telling an old story, or he was talking out of his ass.

“You must have been so scared,” Marybeth said letting out a sigh, “what with Heero’s life in the balance.”

Duo’s eyebrows shot up in surprise and he turned to look at Heero who determinedly avoided his gaze. “I was worried, sure, but we’re trained to keep things under control so that we don’t take unnecessary risks. Heero was never in any danger,” he replied, playing along. He wrapped his arm around Heero’s shoulder and squeeze his bicep, leaning in to nuzzle the other man’s cheek.

As Duo expected, Marybeth practically melted into the floor.

“Okay!” Duo said, extracting himself from Heero and finishing his drink. “I think this party is over for me. I’m going to go say goodbye to Wufei and Sally and then head home.”

Heero frowned. “Already? It’s still early.”

“Yeah, well... with this,” he made a circle between the three of them with his finger, “and Carter hitting on me earlier, I think it might be for the best.”

“Carter hit on you?”

“Yes?” Heero’s tone was oddly... jealous.

Suddenly Heero’s hand was wrapped strong around Duo’s wrist, pulling him towards the back of the room where Carter remained trapped behind the bar. He brightened when he saw Duo, but immediately dimmed when he saw Heero - more specifically, the dark look on Heero’s face. “Agent Yuy.”

“Carter.”

Then Heero was pulling Duo towards him, sealing their mouths together in an altogether unsexy kiss. It was rough and awkward and lasted an inappropriately long time. When Heero pulled away, Duo was panting, eyes wide and mouthing _what the fuck was that_ , while Carter stood frozen, mouth fallen open in surprise. A few other bystanders had turned to look, their own surprise evident on their faces. Heero offered no explanation to either Duo or Carter; rather he wrapped his hand around Duo’s wrist again, said goodbye to Trowa and Quatre - who had taken out to necking in their claimed back corner - as they passed, making a quick stop at Sally and Wufei, before heading to the bank of elevators.

“Uh, Heero?” Duo asked, digging in his heels. “Want to fill me in on what the fuck just happened back there?”

“Not really,” Heero replied. He jabbed the call button several times, still holding Duo’s wrist.

“Well, could you at least release your hold or something? Feels like you’re cutting off circulation to my hand.”

Heero dropped Duo’s hand altogether. “Sorry.” A heavy awkwardness settled between them while they waited for the elevator. “Now he knows.”

“What?” What was up with these non-sequiturs tonight?

“Carter. Now he knows.”

“What? He knows what? What the fuck are you talking about?”

Heero looked meaningfully at Duo. He obviously wasn’t going to say it out loud. The elevator came and they stepped inside. When the doors closed, Heero backed Duo up against the wall. He pressed his mouth against his friend’s once more, far gentler this time, allowing Duo the option of kissing back. It took a moment before Duo’s brain put things together.

 _Oh._

Their lips stayed pressed together until the doors chimed as they opened to the parking garage. “Oh,” Duo said eloquently. “Has this been a long standing thing, or is this just a whim?”

“Long enough for it to mean something,” Heero replied.

The words _mean something_ made Duo feel better about things, but there was still a hell of a lot that needed to be talked about. “Hey, what happened with Trowa and Quatre that makes you and Sally get all quiet?”

Heero blanched. “We were preparing for a briefing a few months back and we walked into conference room five to find them going at it on the table.”

Office parties had a tendency of going one of two ways. Duo wasn’t quite sure where this one fell on the scale.


End file.
